Friday, October 17, 2008

I Guess It Was Inevitable

Kane's class had a mock election yesterday. Kane voted for McCain.

The rest of the day, the other kids taunted him and called him a racist. It was a pretty good preparation for adult political discourse, come to think of it. We had a little talk about it, and I gave him the same advice I give grownups--if you know you're not a racist, what do you care what "they" say? Being called a racist is a sure sign that you're winning an argument, anyway.

We've had to explain to our kids, numerous times, that just because someone votes for the opposite candidate, it doens't make them a bad person. Being able to vote for different candidates is what makes our system of government so great, even if it does rub the nerves raw after a while....

Its far too easy to demonize the other party and those who support them.

Hey, that sounds like this: "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action." The word groupthink was intended to be reminiscent of George Orwell's coinages (such as doublethink and duckspeak) from the fictional language Newspeak, which he portrayed in his ideological novel Nineteen Eighty-Four."http://wifil.net/forum/messages/38618.htm

It's boggling how meanness and pettiness rub off on children.One could it's only natural at that age. The fact that it rubs off on the children, when it comes to an issue such as politics, really just means their parents haven't grown out of it as most adults do...or should, that is.

Yeah, why wasn't it a secret ballot? That kind of brow-beating and name-calling just reinforces the whole 'me versus them' mindset that makes some folks hysterically disconnected. In my opinion, the teacher screwed up.